3 weeks remaining in Costa Rica

Today marks 21 days until we leave Costa Rica. Three weeks. We officially enter a period of time that could be a “long vacation”.

Sadly, a vacation is something we’re not going to be having. Instead, we have a lot of things we have to do. Not just here, but also in preparation for our return to Calgary. In some ways, it almost makes leaving Calgary look easy…

In no particular order:

Cancel our CableTica service

Sell our car (currently trying, and having no luck at all)

“Cancel” our phone (aka give it back to the company)

Pack up the stuff we’re taking with us on the plane

Have the rest of our stuff packed and shipped by slow banana boat (and I’m not really kidding about that — it probably is a banana boat)

Arrange for our utilities in Calgary (gas, electricity, water)

Get our cell phones working in Calgary (probably can’t do that until we get there)

Organise the times/dates for moving our stuff out of storage and back into our house

Arrange for plane tickets

Arrange for hotels for moving (we have to stay at least one night in CR and one night in Calgary), and it they have to take cats

Get a rental car

Then buy a car in Calgary

Figure out how to get what money we’ve managed to save up north so we don’t try carrying it across the border (read: bad idea)

Arrange for documentation to prove that we can take our daughter out of Costa Rica (no, I’m not kidding — Temporary Residents need this for some bizarre reason, even if both parents are present)

Make sure we can get our cat back into Canada (read: find all the documentation we had from 18 months ago)

Clean our apartment top-to-bottom

Give away what we’re not taking back to friends (and other organisations)

Say “goodbye” to the people we’ve come to know very well over the last year and a half (this is going to truly suck)

Make sure we have clothes that are cold-weather appropriate (at least until all of our other clothing is out of storage)

I’m probably missing a few things, and a couple of these have already been done. But there’s a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it.

5 Replies to “3 weeks remaining in Costa Rica”

Just to reduce your stress, I think more than half of this is done, at least in my mind!! You said you’ve done a few of them, and I’ve done a few, and the rest has to wait until the weekend before. I’ve asked M’s teacher about the “summer” program and she can stay there every morning that week if necessary (the 1st to the 4th) for a mere c6000 a day, so that will let me get some organising and cleaning done. I will also start some more of that today, but I think the packing part will be a lot easier this time and I’ve “willed” a lot of things to a lot of people. BREATHE!!!! I see it every day, just like last time, and I feel much better about everything this time!

Moving….. Something D and I are very, very good at and HATE with a passion (only a couple more years and we will have been in our current house as long as I lived in my childhood farmhouse). It never gets easier either. So – keep a master notebook of lists of what needs to be done (and check things off as they’re done) and what is in what box (and whether those boxes/bags are traveling with you or on the slow boat). Keep a couple of favorite toys accessible (or small new toys for distraction). Most of all – take a breather now and then. It will all get done 🙂